The Authority Of Jesus Questioned (ch.
20:1 - 8)
Luke opens this chapter with the words "one day". Well
this one day had to have been Tuesday or Wednesday of the last week before
Jesus’ death. The Jewish leaders questioned Jesus as to who gave Him
such authority to do and to say the things He was doing and saying. Such
things as throwing over the money changers tables was very dramatic. The
synagogue leaders, as well as the Sanhedrin wanted to know who gave Him
this authority because they certainly didn’t and they were the ones in
charge.
I don’t think that this question was a politely asked question.
These leaders were furious with Jesus at this point and they probably
asked the question in great anger.
As often the case, Jesus did not answer their question directly. He
answered with this question, "… tell me, John’s baptism – was
it from Heaven or was it from men"?
Now the Jewish leaders were not dumb. They knew what Jesus would say
about His authority. They just wanted to hear Him say it and then blast
Him for blasphemy, but Jesus didn’t play along with them.
In fact Jesus tried to trap the Jewish leaders with His question. If
John was from God, then Jesus was from God because John spoke and foretold
about Jesus.
So the leaders had to decide among themselves how to answer Jesus’
question. They thought that if they answered by saying John came from God,
then why did they oppose Him. Of course they didn’t think that He was
from God but they concluded they could not admit that in front of the
crowd or else they themselves would be stoned by the masses of people who
were persuaded that both John and Jesus were from God.
In verse 7 the leaders ignored Jesus’ question when they answered,
"we don’t know where it was from". In other words, "we
don’t want to answer your question Jesus".
So this being the case, Jesus answered their original question in
like manner. He said, "neither will I tell you by what authority I am
doing these things". Jesus’ answer pretty well disabled the Jewish
leaders who failed in their attempt to trap Jesus in front of the crowd.
A Parable About Tenants (ch. 20:9 - 19)
Jesus is still in the Temple court when He tells yet another
parable. The story goes like this. A man planted a vineyard and put
certain people in charge. The man went away for a long time and every so
often he’d send someone to check up on things in the vineyard. But every
time he sent someone those in charge of the vineyard beat the messenger
up. Finally the owner of the vineyard thought that he would send his only
son that he loved. He figured that the managers would respect the son, but
they didn’t. After talking things over, those looking after the vineyard
thought that it would be a good idea to kill the son because he was heir
and someday the vineyard would be his. If they killed him, then quite
possibly the vineyard might fall into their hands.
Jesus therefore asked this question in verse 15, "what then
will the owner of the vineyard do to them"?
Jesus answered His own question by saying the owner of the vineyard
will come and kill those bad managers who killed his only son and give the
vineyard to someone different altogether.
In verse 16 those hearing this story responded by saying, "may
this never be". We know from this response and also from verse 19
that the Pharisees and others understood what Jesus was talking about.
It is clear that God was the owner of the vineyard and that He had
sent His prophets throughout the centuries and the Jews beat and killed
them. God then decided to send His only Son Jesus. By Jesus saying that
the son in the story was killed by the managers of the vineyard, He was
implying that the Jewish leaders would kill Him in like manner. Thus the
response by the crowd, "may this never be". Yet the Pharisees
were more furious than ever. Verse 19 tells us that they wanted to kill
him on the spot.
Verse 17 says that Jesus "looked directly at them". To me
this suggest the intensity of Jesus. It was if His eyes were piercing into
the souls of those near Him. His response to the crowd was, "then
what is the meaning of that which is written. ‘the stone the builders
rejected has become the capstone’". (Psa. 118:22)
If the killing of the one and only son was not meant to be, Jesus
was thus asking the crowd for their meaning of this Psalm. Jesus said that
God was building a house, and He was going to be the cornerstone that the
house would be built on. The problem was that the builders threw Him, the
cornerstone away. God had no other choice than to find new builders. The
reality of this came true in Acts 10 when Gentiles came into the Kingdom
of God.
What Jesus said in verse 18 is interesting. He said, "everyone
who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls
will be crushed". What is Jesus saying here?
Jesus said 2 things. First of all, if we fall on the stone we will
be broken. That is to say, if we come to Jesus, the chief cornerstone, He
will break us. He will humble us. He will tear us down and rebuild us into
something He likes. This is something that is not spoken much about in our
gospel. Have you ever heard, "if you give your life to Jesus, He will
demolish you"? Doesn’t really sound like good news. Yet this is
what Jesus said.
This demolishing though is better than the second alternative. If
the stone, meaning Jesus falls on us, then it will crush us to death. If
we don’t give our lives to Jesus, then He will destroy us in the long
run. This will come true on the Day of Judgement.
The Jewish leaders did not like at all what Jesus was saying and
they looked for a way to "arrest Him immediately" but couldn’t
find a suitable way to do this.
One last thought for this section. It is something that I have said
before but is worth repeating. God is not afraid to tear down something
that He has built and start over again. He did it to the Jews, and He can
do it to the church, and I believe He has. Movements that have started by
God’s Spirit that have fallen into disrepair, God has left to form
another movement.
Paying Taxes To Caesar (ch.19:20 - 26)
Verse 20 opens by saying, "keeping close watch on Him, they
sent spies…" Who are "they"? "They" are the
Jewish leaders.
Why did the Jewish leaders send spies? They wanted to catch Jesus in
something that He said that would be against Roman Law. They knew they
could not arrest and kill Jesus. They had no authority to do that, so if
they sent honest looking spies and caught Jesus in some civil wrong, then
they could hand Him over to the Romans who did have the authority to
arrest Jesus.
They first tell Jesus that He teaches things that are right and
things that are from God, and that He doesn’t show partiality. So they
inquired from Jesus if they should pay taxes to Caesar.
If Jesus had answered "no" to their question, then that
would be grounds for immediate arrest. This is what they were hoping for.
Verse 23 says that Jesus "saw through their duplicity".
Jesus knew what they were trying to do to Him. Jesus was quite a genius in
His answer. Jesus must have been very sharp whited. He asked them to show
Him a coin and then tell Him whose picture was on the coin. Caesar’s
image was on that coin. Then in verse 25 Jesus said, "then give to
Caesar that which is Caesars and to God that which is God’s.
Jesus’ answer astonished and silenced those who opposed Him. They
could not trap Him. He said nothing that was against the Roman Law. He in
fact upheld the Law.
These words of Jesus have been echoed by many over the centuries
with some differing interpretations. Jesus is telling us to give to
government what rightly belongs to them. In this particular case it is
taxes. The same can be said for us. We should pay our taxes. If we believe
they are to high then we can find a legal way to protest. In the
case of the people Jesus was speaking to, there was no legal way to
protest. You just paid or else.
What we give to God is different. We give Him our whole lives. Our
whole lives does not belong to our government. Thus, if there is a
conflict between government and God, we stand on the side of God. As I
have said before, Christians live in two kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and
the kingdom of man. God’s Kingdom demands one hundred percent loyalty.
The Resurrection And Marriage (ch. 20:27
- 40)
The event in this section takes place on the Tue. or Wed. before
Good Friday which can be learned from Matthew’s account. Certain
Saddusees, one sect of the Jewish leadership that were more free thinkers
and lived their lives much more loosely than the Pharisees have joined the
attempt to trick Jesus into saying something wrong. You might remember
that the Sadusees did not believe in the resurrection, so the question
that they are about to propose is a little ironic.
The Sadducees most likely are going to try to trick Jesus into
admitting that there is no resurrection because of the illogical case they
are going to present. Or else they will trick Him by proving the
resurrection but go against the Law of Moses by His answer. In Duet. 25:5
the Law says that if a husband dies without having children, the wife
cannot marry outside the family. A brother must merry her and try to have
children.
So this is what these men present Jesus with. A husband dies. He has
7 brothers. Each of the seven brothers marries the wife, one at a time,
but none has children. Each of the seven men, plus the original husband
were legally the wife’s husband. If indeed there is a resurrection, then
who is the real husband and why?
Verse 34 begins the answer that Jesus gave these Sadducees. First of
all, people in this age are given in marriage. They have husbands and
wives. They have children. And as Jesus said, "they die", thus
the reason for having children in the first place, that is, to replenish
the earth.
Jesus goes on to say that it won’t be this way "in that age,
and in the resurrection". Are "that age", and the
"resurrection" the same age? Most likely they are, although some
think that "that age" refers to the time after we die, and
before we get our resurrected bodies, if there is such a time. These
people believe that once we die our souls will be with the Lord, and then
will be united with our resurrected bodies at the day of resurrection.
Jesus said, that "they can no longer die but are like the
angels", meaning, eternal beings. Once again, if these people don’t
die, there is no reason to replenish and reproduce. The number of these
people is a fixed number. Some people believe that when the last of this
fixed number gets saved, then Jesus will return.
The simple fact is that in the next life, we will not have a husband
or a wife. We will not give birth to children. Therefore the whole premise
of the Saddusees question is wrong. Jesus quoted from the time of the
burning bush with Moses. Moses called God "the God of the living, not
the dead". Jesus said this to point out to the Saddusees that Moses
believed in the resurrection of the dead.
Verse 39 says that some responded by saying, "well said
teacher", and nobody thought to ask any more questions. Jesus could
not be stumped.
Whose Son Is The Christ (ch. 20:41 - 47)
Jesus has been asked many questions. It is now His time to ask a
question, and a key one at that. Jesus quoted from Psalm 110:1. It says,
"the Lord said to my Lord; ‘ sit at my right hand until I make your
enemies your footstool’". In this verse we see that "the Lord
said to my Lord". The word Lord is used twice, but in reality the
original Hebrew has two different words. We must remember, in Hebrew there
was more than one name for God. Thus this verse says, "Yahweh said to
Adonai". Was God talking to Himself, or was He talking to the second
person of what we call the Trinity? Most likely the later.
What did Yahweh say to Adonai? Yahweh told Adonai to sit at His
side, a place of authority until all enemies are under His feet. David
called Adonai both his son and his Lord. How could this Adonai, meaning
God, be both a son and Lord to David? How could God be David's son? Good
question.
The reason why Jesus most likely asked this questions is because the
Pharisees saw the Messiah as the son of David, a human being. They did not
view the Messiah as being God. This is the fundamental error in the
Pharisees thinking. This is why they most likely saw the Messiah as an
earthly redeemer, one who would bring a political and physical kingdom
back to Israel. They did not see the Messiah as being God in human flesh.
Luke does not tell us more about this discussion. But we can tell by
the question that Jesus presented that He was getting at the point the
Messiah was both the son of David and the Son of God. He was David’s son
because in human terms He was born in David’s lineage. Yet He was also
the Son of God because of His miraculous birth as a result of the
visitation of the Holy Spirit to Mary.
In the last part of this chapter Jesus blasted the Jewish
leadership. He spoke of their arrogance and pride. He noted that they
loved being greeted and seen in the market place. They prayed long and
lofty prayers only to be seen. Jesus said that they'd "be judged
severely". I am convinced that Jesus feelings towards such leaders
did not end with the Jews. I am sure that He’d say the same about any
Christian leader in our day. Pride and arrogance should not be found in
Christian leaders of any kind or else they too will be judged just as
severely.
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21
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Chapter 19
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